Jagex taking this serious. Notice and takedown letter.

So today i have received what looks like a legitimate notice and takedown order via email.
Kind of interested which of the other websites have received similar emails as this (if legit) is quite concerning if they do decide to go forth and press charges.

My legal knowledge on this matter is pretty limited and i fail to see how they can actually benefit from this as all it takes is the swap of an URL to just continue business.

I have already contacted my lawyer for this to see what his opinion on the matter is.

Image link : http://prntscr.com/lqoiyk

EDIT 1 : I have received response today with a phone number and the valid proof that Jagex is a member of Ukie. My lawyer has also contacted via phone and can confirm legitimacy.

EDIT 2 : Lawyer appointment is on friday! Fingers crossed.

EDIT 3 : Went to 2 law firms today, one for a normal hearing and i wanted to get a second opinion. Both said relatively the same. First it's a relief to know that in the UK in 99% of the cases, an actual email or letter has to be sent first coming from a law firm. One of those basic emails that states "Dear person, we're working in the name of Jagex, etc etc".

This because if the person that is getting sued, gives in to the lawyers demand, this saves a whole lot of time and money for the company doing the actual suing (obviously). Secondly they are mostly instructed (in most cases) by law to do so.

Seeing as how Ukie is not an actual lawfirm but an IP protection agency (hence the title of the person sending the email "IP Coordinator"), i will still wait till an actual law firm contacts me before i take any further action. My lawyer has stated that if they have sent multiple of these emails out, that this is PROBABLY a scare tactic to see who bites the fish and closes down. There is no way for them to start one big case against all gold sellers who have received the email and thus starting up 5 (or more) lawsuits against different gold sellers seems highly unlikely because obviously each case has to be treated individually and each case will cost individually. What my lawyer thinks is that this is the first step to seeing who will close down on base of threat and that they will look for the sites who pose the most threat and who they have a strong case against.

Now the actual part of accusation. Ukie claims that there is a violation of sections 16 and 20 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Although both lawfirms didn't go into details about what those sections incline, they did assure me that proving a violation has been made, is not going to be easy. Some sites (like mine) could be target of getting sued because my site has "Runescape" in the URL. But then again if i just change the URL then that would would fix my problem. However they would have to email me with a different violations letter first as this has nothing to do with my URL but the act which the site performs.

The second lawyer made a good point and that is, how they handle this case AND other forms of bringing gold sellers down. If they decide to play it dirty they could potentially start focussing on other things appart from this case to bring gold sellers down other than copyright claims that don't hold much ground. He stated that they could potentially start being in contact with tax collection agencies to check the books of goldsellers and so forth (just one example). Although unlikely it could be something worth noting.

 

I’d request proof from an @Jagex email

 

I doubt emailing them and going "Hey is it true that u sent me a takedown notice via a firm called Ukie? Potentially threatening to sue me if i don't take down my website?" is a good idea tbh.

 

No. Reply to that email asking them to verify their legitimacy.

 

This is very concerning, I would suggest also taking all official Jagex owned logos and images (rs3 logo, osrs, logo, partyhat favicon) down as that is something they can focus on.

Other than that from my (very limited) knowledge of law having the word "runescape" in your url would allow them to seize your domain based on copyright issues.

Sadly this looks legit and warranted to me but you better make sure.

 

Doesn't leave a phone number? Lol... I doubt it

 

Guys, it's signed with 'Yours Faithfully', what does this guy love you or something? lol

 

Yeah sounds like a fake threat tbh

 

Although it could be a fake threat, the wording is not the thing that makes me aware of it.
Believe it or not i've received emails from actual company representatives using the same word ending.

It would rather be the plain text footer of the email that would suggest it's fake.
Most official sites and big companies would use an image footer / signature or some form of company template within their email.
This is all just plain text, could have easily been spoofed and thus be fake.

 

This is very interesting, following this case

Edit:

Section 20 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Spoiler: Section 20

Infringement by communication to the public
(1)The communication to the public of the work is an act restricted by the copyright in—

(a)a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work,

(b)a sound recording or film, or

(c)a broadcast.

(2)References in this Part to communication to the public are to communication to the public by electronic transmission, and in relation to a work include—

(a)the broadcasting of the work;

(b)the making available to the public of the work by electronic transmission in such a way that members of the public may access it from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.]

How / why are they claiming you are in violation of section 20? Is Jagex trying to argue runescape GP is a work of art?

Maybe ideal to remove any artistic/jagex related icons as anything can be claimed as art.

I dont see any broadcasts, sound recordings, films.

They may have grounds on Section 16 though. IANAL but I would strongly urge you to verify legitamacy of this email, check the full header, copy and paste, and try to find the IP this mail was sent from.

Edit 2:

I am probably reading this incorrectly, but section 16 states that the copyright holder has exclusive rights to do the following acts in the United Kingdom. I am curious, if your jurisdiction is not in the UK, will this copyright hold?

What if I were to get a random copyright from some carribbean island and try to serve Jagex? Jurisdiction would matter. I am not familiar with this aspect of the law, so someone with more knowledge please chime in.

Spoiler: Section 16

16.-
section 17);

(b) to issue copies of the work to the public (see section 18);

(c) to perform, show or play the work in public (see section 19);

(d) to broadcast the work or include it in a cable programme service (see section 20);

(e) to make an adaptation of the work or do any of the above in relation to an adaptation (see section 21);

and those acts are referred to in this Part as the "acts restricted by the copyright".

Chapter III (acts permitted in relation to copyright works), andChapter VII (provisions with respect to copyright licensing).
Infringement of copyright by copying.

 

I have sent them an email back asking for confirmation and a company phone number in which i'm able to call and verify the legitimacy of this email. Will update the thread accordingly.

 

not like a UK kangaroo court will be able to harm you much anyway..

also jagex doesen't have a great track record of winning cases imo let them waste six figures and there own time. worst case you just divest from the UK and chill

 

Don't forget about the infamous 2012 Jagex case against bot developers iBot, aka, Impulse Software, which Jagex ended up winning.

Jagex wins court case against RuneScape botters

 

There was a similar case against RSBot (now Powerbot) where Jagex sued them over the name. You could always just shorten the name to just "goldmarkt.com".

 

I thought this was funny too. Are they saying yours faithfully to hope that you make the right choice and go to heaven. Lol

 

Those are some quality questions

 

Well, first thing is verifying the legitamacy of this.

@RSGM Sales have you been able to find out of this is real or fake?

 

I sent them an email but as of now no response yet.